The Mayor of Casterbridge

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The Mayor of Casterbridge

The Mayor of Casterbridge is a tragic novel by English author Thomas Hardy subtitled, "The Life and Death of a Man of Character". It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester in Dorset). The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rustic England.

1 Plot summary
2 Adaptations
3 See also
4 Reference
5 External links
- 5.1 Study guides

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At a country fair near Casterbridge, Wessex, a young hay–trusser named Michael Henchard overindulges in rum–laced furmity and quarrels with his wife, Susan. Spurred by alcohol, he decides to auction off his wife and baby daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor, Mr. Newson, for five guineas. Once sober the next day, he is too late to recover his family, but swears not to touch liquor again for as many years as he has lived so far (twenty–one).

Eighteen years later, Henchard, now a successful grain merchant, is the Mayor of Casterbridge (and known for his staunch sobriety). He is reunited with Susan who brings a grown Elizabeth-Jane with her. Both Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane's mother keep their past history from the daughter.

The return of his wife and daughter sets in motion a decline in his fortunes. Elizabeth-Jane soon falls in love with Donald Farfrae, whom Henchard has employed as his business manager, and whose fortunes are on the rise in direct contrast to his. Unknown to Henchard, Elizabeth-Jane is not his biological child (she died months after they parted), but that of Newson. He learns this secret, however, after Susan's death when he prematurely reads a letter which Susan, on her deathbed, marked only to be opened upon Elizabeth-Jane's matrimony. Henchard conceals the secret from Elizabeth-Jane, but grows cold and cruel towards her. Henchard's growing resentment of Donald Farfrae (as Farfrae's fortunes rise) leads to his standing in the way of a marriage between Donald and Elizabeth-Jane.

In the meantime, Henchard's former mistress, Lucetta, arrives from Jersey and attracts Donald, who soon marries her. Her relationship with Michael Henchard is revealed and both are disgraced. Lucetta - pregnant - dies of an epileptic seizure.

When Newson, Elizabeth-Jane's biological father, returns, Henchard is afraid of losing her companionship and tells Newson she is dead. Henchard is once again impoverished, and, as soon as his oath is up, resorts to drink. By the time Elizabeth-Jane, months later married to Donald Farfrae and reunited with Newson, goes looking for Henchard to forgive him, he has died and left a will requesting no funeral or fanfare:

"That Elizabeth-Jane Farfrae be not told of my death, or made to grieve on account of me. "& that I be not bury'd in consecrated ground. "& that no sexton be asked to toll the bell. "& that nobody is wished to see my dead body. "& that no murners walk behind me at my funeral. "& that no flours be planted on my grave, "& that no man remember me. "To this I put my name.

[edit] Adaptations

The Mayor of Casterbridge has been adapted twice as a mini-series:

in 2003 by Ted Whitehead for the A&E Television Networks starring Ciarán Hinds - The Mayor of Casterbridge at the Internet Movie Database
in 1978 by Dennis Potter for the BBC starring Alan Bates - The Mayor of Casterbridge at the Internet Movie Database

Both versions were broadcast in the U.S. by PBS as part of Masterpiece Theatre.

A version of the story was also filmed in 2000 as The Claim, with the setting changed to a town (called Kingdom Come) in the American West of the 19th Century. The film was directed by Michael Winterbottom from a screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

In 1951 the novel was adapted as an opera by the British composer Peter Tranchell.